As is increasingly the case, not all grads fared equally though. Some disciplines (think computer science and engineering) saw their average offer increase. And interestingly, accounting - once one of the hottest tickets coming out of college - appears to be barely holding its own.

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According to the Student Placement Directors I have known... although there may be wonderful consistency to the top rates offered to the top grads... most of the “offers” reported to NACE always were delivered to a tiny percentage of all graduates. Most graduates actually accepted starting rates far below that offered by dozens of bidders to the top 10%. So I remain a skeptic… suspect their numbers for “average offer” still remain badly skewed to reflect the cream of the crop v. “the average grad.”

Interesting. I have used NACE data through the years and without a good alternative against which to check its data, it has performed satisfactorily for me. In fact, a few clients have challenged me that some of the averages for technical fields, like engineering, seemed low in comparison to what they were finding in their own recruiting efforts.

About The Author

More Info HereCompensation consultant Ann Bares is the Managing Partner of Altura Consulting Group. Ann has more than 20 years of experience consulting with organizations in the areas of compensation and performance management.